[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 18, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5944-S5945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        BENNETT AMENDMENT TO STATE DEPARTMENT AUTHORIZATION BILL

   Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendment 
offered by Senator Bennett, which urges the administration to enforce 
the Gore-McCain Iran-Iraq Nonproliferation Act of 1992.
  There is wide agreement among leaders in the Congress and the 
administration that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction 
[WMD] and advanced conventional weapons is one of the key national 
security threats facing the United States today. In fact, in 1994, 
President Clinton issued Executive Order 12938 declaring that the 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of 
delivering them constitutes ``an unusual and extraordinary threat to 
the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United 
States,'' and that he had therefore decided to ``declare a national 
emergency to deal with that threat.'' The President reaffirmed this 
Executive order in 1995 and 1996.
  But despite declaring a national emergency, the administration has 
been unwilling to take actions which would reduce the threat we face, 
such as enforcement of the nonproliferation laws passed by the Congress 
and signed by the President. For example, the administration has 
refused to invoke sanctions on China for the transfer of advanced C-802 
antiship cruise missiles to Iran as required by the Gore-McCain 
Nonproliferation Act of 1992. This act requires the United States to 
impose sanctions on any entity that transfers ``goods or technology so 
as to contribute knowingly and materially to the efforts by Iran or 
Iraq (or any agency or instrumentality of either such country) to 
acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or to acquire 
destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons.''
  The administration's failure to invoke sanctions as required by law 
is particularly disappointing in light of the statement then-Senator Al 
Gore made on the Senate floor on October 17, 1991, about the need for 
strong actions to combat proliferation. Mr. Gore urged governments 
around the world to make sales of sensitive technologies ``high crimes 
under each country's legal system; to devote the resources necessary to 
find those who have violated those laws or who are conspiring to 
violate them, and to punish the violators so heavily as to guarantee 
the personal ruin of those who are responsible, and to easily threaten 
the destruction of any enterprise so engaged.''
  In 1996, China sold C-802 antiship cruise missiles and fast-attack 
patrol boats to Tehran. The C-802 has a range of 120 km with a 165 kg 
warhead and is especially lethal due to its ``over-the-horizon'' 
capability. In an interview last year, Vice Adm. Scott Redd, commander 
of the U.S. Fifth Fleet expressed concern that the C-802 gave the 
Iranian military increased firepower and represented a new dimension to 
the threat faced by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf.
  On April 10, 1997, former U.S. Ambassador to China, James Lilley, 
testified to the Senate that Iran planned to increase the survivability 
and mobility of its force of C-802's, by mounting some of the missiles 
on trucks, which could use numerous caves along the gulf coast for 
concealment. And just this morning, Secretary of Defense Cohen 
announced that Iran had successfully tested an air-launched version of 
the missile earlier this month.
  Yet despite these facts, the administration has narrowly interpreted 
its legal obligations and has not invoked sanctions on China for the 
sale of these missiles to Iran. The administration concedes that the 
missiles are advanced, but claims the sale was not destabilizing, 
thereby dodging the requirement to impose sanctions.
  As we saw in 1987, when 37 sailors died from the impact of one 
missile on the U.S.S. Stark, cruise missiles like the C-802 pose a 
dangerous threat to U.S. forces and our allies in the gulf. The 
presence of the U.S. Navy in and around the Persian Gulf is critical to 
the fragile equilibrium of that region. Iran's possession of C-802 
cruise missiles threatens this equilibrium and is clearly 
destabilizing. As Secretary Cohen said this morning, ``Iran's word and 
action suggests that it wants to be able to intimidate neighbors and 
interrupt commerce in the Gulf.''
  Mr. President, the time has come for us to back up our words about 
the terrible threat we face from weapons of mass destruction and 
advanced conventional arms with actions. Actions that will reduce the 
threat we face by punishing those countries that supply these dangerous 
weapons to irresponsible regimes like the one in Iran. We should begin 
by enforcing the nonproliferation laws currently in place. The 
amendment sponsored by Senator Bennett is a meaningful step in the

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right direction. I urge my colleagues to support its passage.

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